


Somewhere Else

by Anonymous



Category: Hiveswap
Genre: Fix-It, Gen, Hiveswap: Friendsim, Hiveswap: Pesterquest, Time Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-20 04:24:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20669291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: hi i'm hank and i have a lot of feelings about Daraya Jonjet





	Somewhere Else

-stumbling back, catching the ground with your ass. It’s a lucky thing you don’t go right off the edge of the mountain, the island rock so uneven another untimely death wouldn’t be too hard to accomplish. (Another.) _Another_. The memories come flooding back, your hands flying free from Bec’s fur to tangle in your own hair as you let out a gasp. Jade comes to lean over you, her eyes blinking concern behind those round glasses, but the dent in your tailbone isn’t what’s making you clutch your head in pain. You remember _everything_, about Jade, about John and Dave and Rose and-

You remember before. (Still not _before _before, but you know Alternia and that it was your first home.) You remember spending days in Stelsa’s hive, sitting with her and Tyzias with your feet on their collective lap. You remember Mallek and his lusus, coming by whenever you needed to hide from the drones for just a little while longer. You remember Zebruh-

Okay, let’s not remember Zebruh. You’re trying to have a moment of relief here.

You remember all your friends, the good and the bad ends, colliding in ways the memories shouldn’t be, with realities that can’t coexist. A dozen faces, a dozen names, the tears, the unnecessary murders, the promises you made-

With another rasping cry, your head snaps back.

“-be okay, okay?” Jade is asking you. Her hand is on your shoulder but you hardly feel it. “I’m sorry! Usually he’s so nice with people! Well…I guess it’s just me and Grandpa, but I thought for sure he’d like you too.”

You try to tell her it’s not Bec’s fault but the babble stops short of leaving your mouth. Your head is somewhere else, and you realize suddenly you should be too. With a start you tumble to your feet and thank Jade so much for letting you stay in her cool island science house, but you just remembered that someone needs you. There is the briefest look of confusion on her face, and then it’s gone, along with the rest of the planet.

* * *

You still haven’t quite gotten this whole _unstuck in time _thing down to a science, and as you’re whirling through the bowels of canon you have the briefest fear of what if I can’t go back? After all without, without Rose and Dave entering the game, the Green Sun never gets created, Alternia doesn’t deviate, and all your friends cease to exist thanks to the like three days you spent on Earth fucking around. Or wait, does Alternia rely on the Green Sun? You have no fucking clue anymore, it was an obscenely long webcomic.

But then you _zap._and yeah. This is definitely Alternia. The green moon is there, and the dirt is hard and purple, and you lean on your knees to sigh in relief. You’re nowhere you know, but that’s the great thing about having all powers of canon at your disposal: you have infinite time to try again.

Sifting through the images in the memories you see thousands of her possibilities: ones where you’re friends, ones where you’re not, ones where you never meet at all. And through each and every one you remember that soft and hopeful _take me with you_. Green. Red. A mall in smoke. _There_.

You reach through time and land in the burning building. A fake palm tree drops a burning leaf beside you, and you scramble backwards until you trip into a long-dried fountain. There is no time mourn yet another bruise on your backside though; you climb the architecture in its center and look.

She’s there. Standing in the fires like the whole world could die and she wouldn’t care. Your past self is there, desperately trying to reach her, but a column from the second story suddenly gives way, blocking you from getting to her. You remember this, how hard you called out, how you couldn’t reach her. Not this time. This time, you scramble to her, ignoring the sound of half-coughing half-sobbing as your old self retreats. The melted metal of ancient architecture burns your palms and your knees but you push on through dust and broken concrete. Her face is still turned skyward, eyes empty, smudges dark in her sockets. You reach forward and take her hand-

And the two of you are back on the beach.

* * *

She blinks, then squints, turning away from a sun that she’s learned to avoid during each sweep of her existence. Then she looks around at jungle and sea, then finally at you, down at her waist and still gripping her hand.

“What just…?” She grasps at straws before casting her gaze around again, this time with shock.

You tell her she was really freaking you out with all that Terminator stuff. It’s safer here.

“But…”

She lets go of your hand, and for a moment you feel bad about plucking her out of her reality, no matter how on fire it was. But then you remember that deep and incurable sadness in her eyes the first time she mentioned going off planet, and you think fuck it. You tell her that you’ve finally been able to make your way back home. And this is it.

Now she’s walking in circles, her heavy boots making dents in the sand. Every now and again she glances at the sun before turning away as the glint hurts her eyes. She opens her mouth to say something, only for the sound of bare feet stumbling through the jungle to make you both look up.

“I saw you zap in from the house!” Jade says, bursting onto to the scene. She stops when she sees Daraya. “Whoa! I didn’t know you were bringing friends. Is this the someone who needed you?”

Yes it is. This is Daraya, your alien friend. Oh, and Daraya, this is Jade. Not the troll kind of Jade, but the human kind, like you.

If Jade can be fazed, this isn’t the thing to do it. She immediately launches into a full-blown welcoming party, having doubled her amount of IRL friends over the course of a single day. Daraya just stands there and soaks it all in, eyes casting over the trees and the smoking volcano and the strange girl before her; and little by little her face changes.

Eventually Jade insists you all come back up to her house, beckoning you and Daraya up the beach. She watches Jade with fascination, the long black hair trailing out behind her like a banner to follow. As you walk, she looks down at you.

“…_How_?”

Let’s just say you came into some reality bending technology on the late.

“And you used it…to help _me_?”

You smile, and take her hand again. Yeah. You can’t believe you forgot to bring her with in the first place.

**Author's Note:**

> "Jade" is the troll equivalent of naming your kid upper middle class


End file.
